Week 3 - 2 Websites I Use Often

www.ebay.com

I am totally a bargain shopper. If I can find a good deal on something, then I enjoy that purchase so much more. For bargain shoppers, eBay is a great site to go to. If you like the thrill of the hunt, then you can participate in auctions where you bid against other people for a great deal. If you don't like to wait for an auction to end, then you can Buy It Now and get that immediate gratification taken care of.

I also am a seller on eBay. They say that one man's junk is another man's treasure, so why just throw something away. I especially like to resell my used college books.

I believe that eBay is effective because they do exactly what they advertise. Their focus is pretty small - Advertise and sell things that people want to buy.  They go to a lot of trouble to categorize the items for sale, so you can put in search keywords and a specific list of products that you want to see comes up.  Then you can easily compare the different options, sort them in different orders, see pictures of them, ask questions about them and finally purchase what you want. They have also developed their branding. Everyone knows about eBay because it is so big and widely used, that you trust that they will not mess up the transaction.

For website design, they keep the main site pretty simple.  The main thing you want to do when you get there is search for an item, so that search box is right on top. Then, if you do need to do something different, they have convenient menu bars for you to get there. 

What makes me come back again is the fact that I can trust that I can get a good deal, and that they will facilitate the transaction. If there is a problem they are there to help you get it resolved.

I think that there are things about their search engine that could be improved. Although you can put in search terms, I've found that people will find ways to get around that. For example, if I want to buy ink for my printer, and I want to see only the ones that are made by the manufacturer (OEM), I can put OEM in the search term, but non-OEM will also show up, and there's a lot more of those than the original that I have to sift through.

www.amazon.com
I never cease to be amazed by Amazon. They have such a reliable and usable website.  I can compare prices from different vendors, see products they sell directly and also products from their competitors right on their website.  Probably the thing I like best is the super fast shipping that is provided when you buy from Amazon.  Sometimes I'm willing to pay more to get something so quickly. Amazon Prime is also a genius concept. I pay one fee and for a year I can get free shipping on anything I order through them. I'm more likely to buy from them because I get free shipping, and it also comes really fast.

Their website is really easy to use. Just put in your search term, and a list of choices appears, then you choose what you want and go to that item. It is consistently built, so I always know where to go to start over. The photos they use are high quality and helpful.

I haven't really got any ideas on how they could improve their website. Everything works so well for me. I'm sure they will come up with some new genius idea soon, though, and then I'll wonder how I ever managed without it.

Week 3 - Principles of Good Website Design

Our task this week was to pick two websites to review that are bad and give reasons why they are bad.  Then we choose 2 websites that have good design and give reasons why they have good design.

Bad Design
http://www.exmouth-view.co.uk/
This is the website for the Exmouth View Hotel in South Devon, UK. This website looks like someone with no web experience designed the page. Some of the problems with it are:

• The page doesn't size to the browser window, so you have to scroll to the right. There are html tags that can resize the site as the window gets bigger.
• The dancing palm trees and waving flags are low quality and look cheap.  Instead, they should focus on quality images that people care about, like what the rooms are like.
• It looks like they tried to dump everything on the first page, and it scrolls down and down. Some organization of the information so you can find what you're looking for would help.
• This is a family hotel, but it doesn't mean you just put up pictures of your family. Most people aren't interested in their family, they should effectively use pictures that people would find valuable.
• I found it funny that at the bottom of the page was this reference. Maybe they should take the hint!

Special Thanks to : Vincent@webpagesthatsuck.com For the Free Advertising !

http://www.roverp6cars.com/
This is the website for MGBD Parts and Services - Rover P6 Parts Specialist in the UK. This site looks like a kindergarten student drew it.  Some of the problems are:

• The colors are horrible. They are really brash and they collide and don't look nice together.  It's difficult to read some of the text and other parts are too loud. They need to look beyond the highlighter colors to the color wheel and choose some that compliment and contrast without being ugly.   Actually their parts store page is designed better, but that just makes it more offensive when you go to any of the other pages.
• The image of a car behind the buttons doesn't work. It's difficult to read the text, it's ugly and it doesn't look professional. At least they tried to give the viewer a way to more directly access the information that they need. They should take the car picture out from the buttons and use a professional button picture, or make tabs or a top menu.
• Their pictures are all off to the side. Maybe they could highlight a few pictures that are relevant and wrap text around them to describe how they are important.
• The length of the web page is too long.  They need to leave some of the content from the first page for the menu items. It's just too much to absorb.

Good Design
http://www.apple.com/
This is Apple Inc.'s website. They are leaders in computing and design, and it shows.

• The web page is clean and crisp with vivid images.
• The branding for Apple is clearly visible. The brand is so well known and trusted that it makes you feel at home when you visit their site. The clearly show the Apple branding everywhere.
• There is an easily visible and easily accessible menu at the top of the page. This menu bar and the apple logo are consistent on every page.
• There is a nice collage of high quality photos that allow you to drill into their product lines. This is a simple way for viewers to easily find where they need to go.
• The website resizes with the window so you can see a complete picture of the page no matter what your screen size.

http://www.ford.com
This is the website for the Ford Motor Company.  This is also a large professional company, and their website reflects that. Some things I like about this site:

• Clean, simple design. The focus is on the cars they make and nothing else. The photos are high quality and attractive.
• The Menu Bars allow visual choices. When you hover over a menu item, it visually shows you the breakdown. For example if you hover over the Car menu item, a further drill down is shown for each of their car lines, complete with pictures, so you know where to go.
• It's interactive. It will allow you to custom tailor the car that you want. You can see everything from specs to detailed photos of the car, so you can decide what you want. Even color variations are available.
• It knows where you are. It auto magically fills in the zip code where you are and tailors your experience to that zip code.

Week 2 - 5 business websites and their social media

My goal in this class is to improve our social media presence for our Online Church. Because of that, I decided to look at the social media presence that our church, New Song Community Church already has, and compare that to 2 other similar or larger churches in our area, Calvary Chapel Oceanside and North Coast Church - Vista, and then look at two of the mega-church sites, Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Il and Saddleback Church in Mission Viejo. (by the way, I've attended multiple services at each of these churches in the past, so I already knew of them.)

Here's what I found. Compared to the other similarly sized churches in the area, we are doing pretty well, at least hanging with them in terms of volume and are actually ahead in terms of different social media used.  Compared to the mega-churches, we have a ways to go.

New Song Church
http://newsongchurch.com
Social Media

• Facebook
• 2398 likes
• 5644 visits
• Last post 14 hours ago
• Twitter
• 277 tweets
• 145 following
• 134 followers
• 2 favorites
• 4 lists
• Last tweet Feb 11
• Vimeo
• 345 videos
• 6 following
• 1 group
• 1 channel
• 29 albums
• Last video – 2 days ago
• Instagram
• 32 posts
• 113 followers
• 101 following
• Last post – April 2014

North Coast Church
http://www.northcoastchurch.com
Social Media

• Facebook
• 5,626 likes
• 19,342 visits
• Last Post 18 hours ago
• Twitter
• 781 Tweets
• 536 Following
• 1,437 Followers
• 103 Favorites
• Last Post 19 Hours Ago

Calvary Chapel Oceanside
http://www.calvaryoceanside.org
Social Media

• Facebook
• Page not available
• Vimeo
• 76 Videos
• 0 likes
• 0 Following
• 0 Groups
• 0 Channels
• 4 Albums
• Last Post 1 month ago.

Saddleback Community Church
http://saddlebackchurch.com
Social Media

• Facebook
• 115,260 Likes
• 81,318 Visits
• Last Post – 16 minutes ago
• Twitter
• 16.9K tweets
• 21.8K Following
• 30.5K Followers
• 16.6K Favorites
• 5 Lists
• Last Post 9 hours ago
• Google +
• 608 followers
• 141,773 Views
• Last Post Yesterday
• You Tube
• 14,533 subscribers
• Last Post – 3 days ago
• Pinterest
• 17 Boards
• 1,451 pins
• 204 Likes
• 2,767 Followers
• 931 Following
• Instagram
• 915 posts
• 12K followers
• 7,003 Following
• Last Post – February 2015

Willow Creek Church
http://willowcreek.org
Social Media

• Facebook
• 43,181 likes
• 80,343 Visits
• Last Post 29 minutes ago
• Twitter
• 4,429 Tweets
• 58 Following
• 19.3K Followers
• 3,664 Favorites
• 3 Lists
• Last Tweet 1 hour ago
• Google +
• 3,551,488 Views
• Last Post  - 4 weeks ago
• Instagram
• 207 Posts
• 2,995 Followers
• 16 Following
• Last Post – February 2015
• FourSquare
• Total Visitors 2850
• Total Visits 14,308
• Last post December 2014
• iTunes
• 61 Ratings
• 173 Podcasts
• Last Post 2/8/2015

Week 2 - Communicating with Business

A couple of years ago I had a problem with a phone service from Cox. Our answering machine had died and I didn't want to spend money on a new machine since I wasn't sure whether I wanted to keep our land line or switch to our cells. I saw on the services that Cox provided that they offer an answering service for a fee. I decided to give it a try, so I went out to the Cox website.  A chat window appears where you can have a conversation with a representative. They listened to what I wanted, of course charged me a fee to set up the service and pointed me to a document with directions on how to set up the service.  I spent about an hour trying to set up the service on my own, and it didn't work. I had to call and ask for a live person, who found out that something in their system wasn't set up correctly. I asked for them to deliver an email to me when a message was left so that I would know one was there since I no longer had a machine to beep at me to let me know. They said that when the phone rang it would ring differently if a message was left, or I could call to check every day. I preferred to be notified when the message came in. They never did get the email delivery to work, so I ended up back at the store buying an answering machine.

Some form of social media was included in the process in the form of a chat, but all they did was point me to a document.  That seemed pretty useless.  If there had been some type of reviews that I could have read before paying for the service, I could have decided not to do it in the first place, and maybe Cox could read those reviews and fix their "Service". It seems strange that a company with Communications in it's name wouldn't have better communications.

Week 1 - Social Media types for Business and Personal Use

I think that given the right circumstances, pretty much any social media type could be used for either business or personal use. That doesn't mean that every type is appropriate for every business, but it just depends on what and how you want to communicate.

One of the ideas that I read in the text is that we need to think about marketing on social media in a different way than we normally think about marketing.  It's not about shouting 'WE'RE HERE', but instead of using the various media types to create interesting content that will draw people to your website. So, out of their interest the COME to you, you don't need to find them.   I personally think this is brilliant and turned on a light bulb in my mind. I'm really not a sales type of person, but if someone is interested and can benefit from what you have, then your are really just sharing what you have.

So, my thing is trying to get the word out about our online church service. If I could come up with some awesome prayer cards by using photos and verses and make them available through Pinterest, then maybe someone who wants something like that would find my page and be able to benefit from that work. If we have some original songs that we write (wouldn't want to infringe on copyrights), then I could create some You Tube videos that would allow someone to watch our worship. If I want to do an online Bible Study, then Facebook would be a good choice. If I wanted to just sent a quick blip that our Online Service is starting, then maybe a Twitter shout out would be in order.

Now not every business would want to send a Twitter feed, and not every business will have a video, but I think that's what's so cool about this. There's no boundaries or limits.  You need to use your creativity to think of ways to help people so that they can then decide if they want to know more about what you're doing.

Week 1 - Why I chose this template

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog. I was looking for some template that represented me and what I'm trying to do with this blog. Since my main purpose for exploring social media is to promote New Song Online Church, this seemed to be a fitting background.  Every time I'm in the mountains it always highlights the vast, incredibly beautiful creation that we live in. The mountain is a place where God met Moses and where Jesus went to pray and get revived.   Well, I need some of that today... and every day, so why not look at this every time I come here. Hope it puts you in the same place that it's putting me.